Thoughts and impressions from our travels, including India, Thailand, and other places.

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Settling into a Routine

It's Thursday morning here now and we are enjoying the days. After an unusually busy weekend, we are settling into the rhythm of our life here.

We are on the sixth floor of Smith Suites and are very happy to have a separate bedroom and a large living room. (Last year we had a studio.) Again our windows mostly face south (one to the east) so we get a lot of sun. We mostly keep our curtains shut during the day. The temperatures are pleasant -- it gets down to 60°F overnight and about 90°F at midday. We have A/C and a fan we bought last year, but we've only used the fan a few times.

Sunrise from our balcony

Sunset from our balcony

We have our regular activities: Dan plays pickle ball three mornings a week at the nearby park and takes Thai lessons about three days a week. He is studying a lot. He also takes frequent long walks in the afternoon. I go to tai chi class M-F and swim every afternoon (the pool water is colder than the pool I swim in at home, but I do it!). We both had our first massage on Tuesday and will go about twice a week. The greatest change from last year is that two of our grandchildren are staying in Chiang Mai. On Saturday they came to our place for a visit and we had dinner together. Wednesday we rode the scooter to their part of town and saw the condo Billy and Jasmine are staying in. Seth is in a different place and actually has two condos. One he rents out on Air B&B for some income. I hope we'll be able to get together about twice a week.

Seth, Jasmine and Billy at the restaurant

My Mussaman curry with sweet potato naan

Walking back to their apartment, we passed a roti vendor and couldn't resist having one. This is a thin layer of stretchy dough fried with egg and banana inside. It is folded and cut, then dribbled with chocolate syrup and a bit of sweetened condensed milk. We had two to share among the five of us and it was more than enough!

Roti maker

Restaurant where we ate

On Monday night we had our first dinner back at the Doo Dee, a nearby restaurant we liked a lot last year. The servers remembered us and it was good to be recognized.

They house-label their bottled water

My first pad thai of the season; I took half home for lunch the next day